First things first: the way-in-advance forecasts say it won’t be quite as hot this January in Melbourne as it was in 2014.
And that’s a good thing. Here’s what it looked like around the grounds of the Australian Open last January when they invoked the extreme-heat rule, and play stopped on the outer courts.
The place looked post-apocalyptic.
Weatherman Bob expects maybe five days at 35 degrees, and perhaps one where the temperature hits 40 degrees.
In addition to the new retractable roof above Margaret Court Arena, which will be operational this year, there will be shade structures on Courts 7 and 8, which are right behind Show Court 3 and can get pretty toasty.
Contrary to previous years where they nailed patrons for a separate ticket during the first eighth days, when there was play in the second big arena (Hisense), that stadium will now be general admission. Instead, they’ll charge for entry into Margaret Court Arena.
What that will do, if it’s hot enough to stop play on the outer courts or if it rains, is give fans three places to watch tennis – including a large-sized venue available to fans with the popular grounds passes.
As you can see from the video above, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley says they’ve modified the “extreme heat” rule.
They actually haven’t changed the essence of when it comes into effect. The difference is that they’ll take the application of it out of super-secret probation. They’ve also specifically spelled out the thresholds at which it *could* come into effect (where before, the actual WBGT number was their little secret).
What they have modified are the details of when the players actually stop play. Before, they had to finish out the set they were contesting. Now, play will stop on all outside courts at an even number of games.
“(The meteorologist) will look at what the forecast is, use a wet bulb globe reading (WBGT) of 32.5 degrees, and an ambient air temperature of 40 degrees. When those two happen, that’s when we’ll likely invoke the heat policy, if there’s going to be a sustainable period of ongoing heat,” Tiley said.
(That’s all in Celsius, FYI. 32.5C is 90.6 Farenheit; 40C is 104F.)
Since nobody really knew what was happening before, they’re adding what they’re calling a “heat policy gauge”.
We don’t know what it’ll look like, but it will have green, amber and red lights. When it gets into the red zone, that will help the on-court officials to start putting out the ice vests and the other elements that help the players cope with the heat. And it will serve as a guide to both the players and the fans, who will have a heads up as the conditions get more extreme.
Interesting info here on Wikipedia, which isn’t always the most reliable source but seems well-sourced on this one (with the exception of noting that Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver “carried off a ballboy” during his match.
Given he was playing Milos Raonic in his first-rounder, we can vouch for the fact that this didn’t happen; in fact, it was Raonic who was on the side of the ballkid – it was a girl – and accompanied her off the court, although he didn’t carry her as far we we remember.
At any rate, the post outlines the temperature threshold at which the heat policy can be invoked. And it was going down, rather than up – until now.
In 1998 (when it first came into effect), the max was 40C. By 2002, it was down to 38C and by the next year, it was down to 35C with a WBGT of 28.
So the numbers stated Tuesday in Australia, of 40C with a WBGT of 32.5, are a LOT higher than recent reported thresholds. And that’s not a good thing at all. Hopefully it means that the “discretion” factor (which was added in 2008) can kick in when the numbers are lower than those limits, not only higher.
From Wikipedia, here’s what the WBGT actually IS:
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